For many centuries it was used as a pigment for glass. Now it is used as a fuel in nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons. Depleted Uranium is used in casings of armor piercing artillery shells, armor plating on tanks and as ballast in the wings of some large aircraft.

Uranium (U) is a heavy, naturally radioactive, metallicelement with an atomic number of 92. Its two principally occurring isotopes are uranium-235 and uranium-238. Uranium-235 is indispensable to the nuclear industry because it is the only isotope existing in nature that is fissionable by thermal neutrons. Uranium-238 is also important because it absorbs neutrons to produce a radioactive isotope that subsequently decays to the isotope plutonium-239, which also is fissionable by thermal neutrons.

"Depleted" Uranium is one of the densest materials known to man; As such, the United States uses it for bullets and tank armor. According to the WHO, normal civil or military use of depleted uranium is unlikely to lead to serious health problems. However, depleted uranium remains nonetheless a weakly radioactive, and chemically toxic metal. [1][2][3]